Toilet-paper-roll holder.



J. GOOD.

TOILET PAPER ROLL HOLDER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 11, I909.

Patented Apr. 24, 1917.

JOHN GOOD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, .A-SSIGNOR T0 SERVET SPECIALTY'COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

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TOILET-PAPER-ROLL HOLDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 24, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN G001), a citizen of the United States, residing in the b01- ough of Brooklyn, county of Kings, city and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toilet- Paper-Roll Holders, of which the following is a full, true, and concise specification.

The invention is a dispensing holder for toilet paper rolls, and aims to simplify and reduce the cost of such devices and to pro vide a holder adapted for delivering the aper freely and in such quantities as may e needed but without allowing the roll to spin on its support nor causing "the thin tissue-paper to break or tear before a suflicient length has been unwound, and also to provide a holder which will allow the paper to be withdrawn from it with equal facility from any direction or on any side, it being characteristic of the invention that the paper roll is supported in an upright and projecting relation, free from obstruction to access on any side, and is not dependent upon the presence of tearing edges or knives in contact with or surrounding the periphery of the roll, but on the contrary, and by rea son of its said exposed and unobstructed disposition, provides for the side of the roll itself to be utilized as the fulcrum or edge upon which the tissueaper will tear when unwound or drawn 0 from any direction, as hereinafter more fully described.

In the drawings forming a part hereof,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the new device showing the toilet paper roll in vertical section;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same, showing the paper strip in the process of severance;

Fig. 3 is a top plan of Figs. 1 and 2; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are modified forms in reduced scale.

The holder comprises a horizontal base, preferably in the form of a flat smooth sheet-metal plate 1, which is rounded or circular on its front and sides and of a diameter approximately equal to the diameter of a full roll of toilet paper. At its rearward side the plate is formed with a short neck portion 2, which terminates in a vertical flange 3, being at right angles to the plate and perforated with screw holes for attachment to a vertical wall or support, indicated at 4, whereby the device is rigidly and immovably supported in a projecting and horizontal relation therefrom. Rising from the central portion of the horizontal base there is provided a vertical post 5 which is adapted to receive and constitute a rigid pivot for the roll of toilet paper 6 placed in an upright position thereon and resting, endwise, upon the horizontal base. The latter serves as a friction table upon which the said roll revolves as the paper is drawn off and thereby provides a frictional tension for retarding or governing the unwinding of the paper, and I have discovered that the weight alone of a roll of soft tissue paper of the kind usually and preferably employed for toilet paper and of the usual and appropriate width for such paper is sufficient, when mounted upright upon a stationary base, to provide an adequate if not the most effective and satisfactory tension for the delivery and tearing of the paper strip as explained below. The friction between the end of the roll and the flat table is of course subject to some variation as the roll decreases in diameter and weight as it unwinds, but

owing to the correspondingly diminishing radius of the roll, the tension on the paper strip remains substantially constant.

The upright pivot post is of somewhat less diameter than the average diameter of the internal cores of toilet paper rolls, and is preferably of a suitable length to project somewhat above the top of the roll when the latter is on the base, this dimension being desirable to prevent accidental dislodgment and also to facilitate the placing of the roll in frictional contact with the table. At its upper end the post is tapered or rounded, and is preferably free from obstruction to the removal of the roll. At its base it is connected with the friction table by a joint which provides a clean angle therewith, the table being preferably flat or flush up to the commencement of the upright cylindrical wall of the post. As shown in the drawing, the post is constructed of tubular sheet metal and secured to the table by upsetting or crimping within a central aperture provided in the'latter and as indicated at 7 in Fig. 1, but other methods of attachment may be employed with equal effect. g

In operation the holder is supplied with paper by placing the roll over or upon the vertical pivot post so that it. rests in endwise frictional contact upon the friction table, it being immaterial which end of the roll is thus placed upon the table, inasmuch as the tension in the delivery is not dependent upon the direction of rotation. The paper may then be withdrawn or unwound for any desired length by pulling upon it in the ordinary natural manner and can be severed by then pulling downwardly or at an angle from horizontal, the tear in the paper strip taking place along the vertical line where it leaves the curvature of the roll and according to the direction from which the strip is withdrawn. The front and sides of the friction table are free and unobstructed for this purpose. As illustrated in Fig. 2, which exhibits the rollholder in front view, the paper strip is being pulled parallel with the wall 4 and then somewhat downwardly for tearing, as indicated, so that severance takes place on a transverse or vertical line exactly at the front of the roll or where the paper strip, thus withdrawn, departs from the cylindrical curvature thereof. The device may be employed for paper that has been specially perforated for the purpose of predetermining the point of severance, and such paper may be torn either along the line of the perforations or elsewhere, according as to Whether such perforations coincide with the point of departure from the roll curvature or otherwise, as above explained, this being an incident of the certain degree of frictional tension produced by the free endwise support of the light tissue paper roll upon its friction table and without the aid of additional peripheral or other friction-producing devlces. The invention provides for the omission of such devices inasmuch as the tension due to the weight of the roll is suflicient, as above stated, and paper of the kind referred to, being pliable and non-resilient, does not tend to unwrap or uncoil itself from the roll, so that the free or last severed end does not require to be confined or held thereto. This end will normally stand slightly off from the body of the roll on whichever side it was last torn so that it is freely accessible and can be readily grasped from any quarter. The device may, therefore, be disposed on the closet wall at any convenient point and height without regard to the direction from which the paper is to be withdrawn and without consideration of the direction in which the roll will rotate in unwinding, and its action will be uniform in all cases.

The attachment means whereby the horizontal friction table is rigidly and i'mmovably secured to the vertical wall, comprises, in Figs. 1 to 4, a downwardly turned flange, which in Fig. 4 is outwardly bent at its free end to form a holder 8 for cigars or other articles. The invention includes, however, an upwardly bent flange 3'? which is con verted into a receptacle by being turned outwardly over the top of the roll, forming, with the wall or otherwise, a trough or receptacle 9, as shown for example in Fig. 5.

I claim as my invention the following 1. A dispensing holder for toilet-paper rolls, comprising a fixed friction table of a diameter approximately that of the toiletpaper roll and unobstructed at its front and side margins, means for supporting the same in projecting relation from a wall, and an upright freely-projectingpivot post secured at its lower end to the central part of said table for supporting the paper roll in endwise frictional contact thereon, whereby the roll must always be rotated relatively to the fixed underlying friction surface and the paper can be drawn off and downwardly from either side or the front of said immovable table and torn against the side of the roll itself.

2. A dispensing holder for toilet-paper rolls, consisting of a bent plate forming a vertical wall-attaching part and a horizontal fixed flat friction table of a diameter approximately that of the roll to be supported, the said table having a central aperture and a substantially circular margin at the front and sides, and a tubular sheet metal post secured at its lower end in the aperture in the table and projecting freely upward and formed with an integral closed and unobstructed top.

3. A dispensing holder for toilet-paper rolls comprising a sheet-metal table bent at one side to form a vertical wallattaching flange, said flange being again bent outward and turned upward to form an article holder projecting away from the wall, and a vertical post rising freel from the plate and adapted to hold a tollet-paper roll endwise thereon.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to the specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN GOOD. Witnesses:

G. AJTAnoR, J. J. MCELHINNY. 

